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that, according to the latest report from crypto lending platform Ledn, the global market for Bitcoin-backed consumer lending could grow nearly 300 times over the next decade, reaching $1 trillion, while a significant amount of potential demand remains untapped.The report cites a survey conducted by consumer research firm Protocol Theory among 1,244 cryptocurrency holders in the United States and Australia. It shows that approximately 88% of respondents are willing to consider using crypto-backed loans or credit products, but only 14% have actually used such services, creating a so-called "6:1 interest-to-adoption gap."Ledn estimates that the current global market size for Bitcoin-backed consumer lending is around $3 billion. In comparison, Galaxy Research previously estimated the entire crypto lending market peaked at $73.6 billion in the third quarter of 2025. Ledn co-founder Mauricio Di Bartolomeo stated: "The demand-side problem has been solved. What the industry is truly missing right now is the trust infrastructure that allows borrowers to build confidence."The survey indicates that the core factors hindering user adoption of crypto-backed lending are not a lack of awareness, but concerns over price volatility, forced liquidation risks, and regulatory uncertainty. When choosing a lending platform, users prioritize platform reputation, custody security, transparency, and risk management over simple interest rates. The report argues that crypto-backed lending is essentially similar to "stock-backed financing" or "home equity loans" in traditional finance, allowing users to obtain liquidity without selling their long-term holdings. (CoinDesk)
Hyperliquid has recently significantly outperformed the broader market. Its token, HYPE, hit an all-time high following the launch of two related ETFs in the United States. Meanwhile, European traders are accelerating their migration to the platform due to restricted access to perpetual contracts on regulated exchanges. Market analyst Michael van de Poppe stated that with Hyperliquid's continued rally and renewed interest in AI-related crypto projects, signs of improving risk appetite are emerging in the altcoin market. Hyperliquid’s expansion into tokenized stocks, commodities, and pre-IPO assets is strengthening the on-chain asset tokenization trend. He suggested that if market sentiment continues to improve, HYPE’s price could target $100 or even higher.However, Michael van de Poppe also stressed that while Hyperliquid holds a short-term advantage, Solana offers greater long-term investment certainty, transitioning from a "speculative ecosystem" to institutional-grade infrastructure. In the AI track, he noted that NEAR Protocol and Bittensor remain significantly undervalued, citing a disconnect between their fundamental growth and valuations. He pointed out that NEAR’s revenue growth potential and Bittensor’s subnet expansion could support higher valuation ranges. Additionally, he indicated that the privacy sector retains long-term demand, but fully anonymous systems face regulatory pressure. The future is more likely to be dominated by zero-knowledge proofs and compliant privacy solutions.On the macro level, Michael van de Poppe highlighted that bond yields and central bank policies remain the core drivers of the crypto market, with changes in Japanese government bond yields potentially serving as a key barometer. (CoinDesk)
According to CoinDesk, cryptocurrency custody firm Copper is seeking to sell the company at a valuation of approximately $500 million and has engaged Wall Street investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald to assist with the transaction. Copper’s core asset is its ClearLoop custody-based settlement system, which enables institutional clients to execute delivery versus payment (DvP) transactions without moving assets on-chain, effectively eliminating settlement risk. The company currently boasts over 1,000 active counterparties and processes over $50 billion in notional trading volume monthly. Copper had previously considered an IPO, but the broader crypto IPO market has entered a wait-and-see phase amid sluggish Bitcoin prices and the capital-attracting effect of the AI sector.
According to CoinDesk, crypto infrastructure firm Zerohash is seeking new funding at a valuation exceeding $1.5 billion. This comes after Mastercard abandoned its investment plans for Zerohash following its $1.8 billion acquisition of UK-based stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK. Founded in 2017, Zerohash provides APIs and embedded development tools to financial institutions and fintech companies, enabling support for cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and tokenized products. The company now serves over 5 million users across 190 countries, with clients including Morgan Stanley, Stripe, Interactive Brokers, BlackRock’s BUIDL Fund, and Franklin Templeton. In September 2025, Zerohash closed its $104 million Series D-2 round, valuing the company at $1 billion at that time.
According to CoinDesk, Simone Maini, CEO of blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, stated that the biggest emerging risk to crypto security is not larger-scale hacking attacks, but rather AI-driven financial activity operating at a speed and scale that human compliance teams cannot keep up with. As AI lowers the barriers to hacking, scams, and fraud, security firms like Elliptic are responding by deploying AI agents to analyze on-chain data in real time—sparking an automated arms race between adversaries and defenders. Maini noted that current compliance systems remain heavily reliant on manual review, and the global pool of compliance analysts specializing in digital assets is simply insufficient to meet future demand. Elliptic has raised $120 million in funding—including from Nasdaq and Deutsche Bank—to build an “agent-based compliance system” that leverages AI to automate transaction monitoring and investigation workflows, thereby reducing the cost per alert and per investigation.
Kraken's parent company, Payward, has announced layoffs of approximately 150 employees to streamline its organizational structure and prepare for its upcoming initial public offering (IPO).According to reports, the company is also seeking a new round of funding at a target valuation of around $20 billion, and plans to expand its business footprint through mergers and acquisitions to pave the way for its listing. Analysts suggest that these layoffs and capital moves indicate that Kraken is accelerating its transition towards a traditional public company governance structure to enhance profitability and market competitiveness. (CoinDesk)
According to CoinDesk, Nasdaq-listed SUI Group and London-based hedge fund Karatage co-led Nof1’s $15 million funding round. Previously, the two firms jointly invested—with TwinPath Ventures—in Recursive Superintelligence, a self-evolving AI startup valued at over $4 billion. Both investments rest on the same core thesis: autonomous AI agents will become the foundational infrastructure of future investment markets, and companies building training environments today may dominate the financial landscape of tomorrow.
Turnkey, a company specializing in crypto wallets and key management infrastructure, has announced the completion of a $12.5 million strategic financing round. Archetype and Circle Ventures led the round, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital Crypto, Lightspeed Faction, Galaxy Ventures, and Variant. The project's total funding has now exceeded $65 million.The company's primary business involves developing wallet and key management infrastructure for crypto applications. This round of financing will be used to support the development and public launch of Turnkey Verifiable Cloud, a product focused on digital asset security computing. This product aims to provide enterprises with verifiable operating environments, encompassing functionalities such as transaction visibility, policy decisions, and agent-driven wallet activities. Turnkey's current clientele includes Polymarket, World App, and Anchorage Digital.
According to CoinDesk, Fasset, a Los Angeles-based stablecoin-powered digital bank, has announced the completion of a $51 million Series B funding round. Investors include Japan’s SBI Group, Investcorp, and Turkish asset management firm Arz Portföy. The valuation for this round was not disclosed. Fasset leverages stablecoin technology to power over 50 payment corridors across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, serving more than 1,000 SMEs in over 125 countries, with an annualized transaction volume exceeding $32 billion. The company plans to use the new funds to expand into new markets, develop lending and trade finance products, and scale its proprietary stablecoin payment and custody infrastructure—“Own Network.” Additionally, Fasset recently partnered with Tether, the issuer of USDT, to launch a gold-backed digital banking card.
crypto wallet provider Ledger has suspended its US IPO plans, citing unfavorable current market conditions. (CoinDesk)
According to CoinDesk, French crypto hardware wallet company Ledger has suspended its U.S. IPO plans due to unfavorable market conditions. Sources familiar with the matter said Ledger was previously valued at approximately $4 billion and had engaged Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and Barclays as IPO advisors—but it has not yet filed any registration documents with the SEC. The company may instead consider private fundraising. Earlier, Kraken also paused its IPO citing market conditions, while publicly listed BitGo’s stock price has fallen roughly 36% from its offering price, indicating a broad cooling of enthusiasm among crypto firms for U.S. listings.
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated that privacy is becoming a core infrastructure direction for the next phase of the crypto industry. Recently, three institutional-grade blockchains focused on stablecoins and asset tokenization—Arc, Canton, and Tempo—have accumulated over $1 billion in total funding, indicating a rapidly growing demand from institutions for "privacy-friendly on-chain financial systems."Among them, stablecoin issuer Circle contributed $222 million in funding for Arc, giving it a valuation of approximately $3 billion; Digital Asset’s Canton blockchain is reportedly seeking $300 million in funding at a $2 billion valuation; and Tempo, backed by Stripe and Paradigm, has previously completed $500 million in funding at a valuation of $5 billion.Hougan noted that this funding wave reflects three major trends: the gradual clarification of the U.S. regulatory framework, increased institutional demand for on-chain privacy, and intensified competition among new blockchain networks supported by large enterprises. Current public blockchains still face structural trade-offs between speed, cost, security, and privacy. However, scenarios involving stablecoins and RWA tokenization require systems that simultaneously offer high performance, compliance, and privacy, making “verifiable privacy” a critical prerequisite for institutional adoption of on-chain finance.Hougan further stated that, for enterprises, “all transactions being publicly broadcast” is not an advantage but a potential flaw. In the future, users and institutions may find it increasingly difficult to accept a fully transparent on-chain financial environment. He believes that privacy capabilities could become the “killer app” driving the crypto industry into its next phase of mainstream adoption. Additionally, following the passage of the U.S. Genius Act in 2025, regulatory certainty has significantly increased, providing a clearer policy foundation for institutional funds to enter the crypto infrastructure space. (CoinDesk)
According to CoinDesk, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced it will leverage Chainlink’s infrastructure to power its blockchain-based collateral management platform, Collateral AppChain. Built on the Besu blockchain, the platform utilizes Chainlink’s Compute Runtime Environment (CRE) and data standards to support asset pricing, valuation, margin calculation, collateral optimization, and settlement. Through smart contracts, it enables 24/7 automated collateral management—aiming to address the current delays in cross-institutional and cross-time-zone movement of assets within existing collateral systems.
According to CoinDesk, Payward, Kraken’s parent company, is seeking new funding at a $2 billion valuation. Payward has recently accelerated its acquisition efforts, acquiring stablecoin payments firm Reap and digital asset derivatives platform Bitnomial—both transactions valued the company at $2 billion. Earlier, in 2025, Payward completed its $1.5 billion acquisition of U.S. retail futures platform NinjaTrader. Payward has confidentially filed a draft S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation for a potential IPO. Kraken declined to comment on the latest funding round.
According to CoinDesk, K Wave Media (KWM), a South Korean media company listed on Nasdaq, disclosed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it would redirect its $485 million financing facility—originally earmarked for Bitcoin purchases—toward investments in AI infrastructure, including data centers, GPU compute operations, and related acquisitions. The funding stems from a revised agreement with Anson Funds, a structured equity financing firm. The company had originally established a $500 million financing facility in June 2025, exclusively for Bitcoin purchases. Less than one year later, it announced abandoning this strategy in favor of betting on the AI sector and plans to rename itself “Talivar Technologies,” pending approval at its shareholders’ meeting scheduled for early July. Following the announcement, KWM’s stock closed down 24% on Monday and fell another 4% pre-market on Tuesday.
blockchain financial company Fence has announced the completion of a $20 million new funding round, led by Galaxy Digital, with participation from Parafi Capital and Crane Venture Partners. Fence is dedicated to leveraging blockchain and tokenization technology to transform the back-office processes of the asset-backed finance market, primarily focusing on the operational layer of structured credit transactions, including loan pool tracking, collateral verification, and cash flow management. Fence emphasizes that it does not define itself as a blockchain company, but rather uses blockchain as back-office infrastructure to automatically manage cash, collateral, and transaction rules through smart contracts, and to tokenize loan positions when necessary to enhance liquidity and automation. (CoinDesk)
Latin American digital wallet Belo has completed a $14 million Series A funding round, led by Tether, with participation from Titan Fund, The Venture City, Mindset Ventures, and G2. The funds will be used to expand into Latin American markets including Mexico, Chile, and Colombia, and to scale stablecoin payment infrastructure deployment.Founded in 2021, Belo offers a wallet service that combines local currencies with digital dollars, currently serving over 3 million users. This investment also reflects Tether's increasing efforts to expand stablecoin payment applications in emerging markets. (CoinDesk)
According to CoinDesk, SpaceX is expected to go public in June and could surpass Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion IPO in 2019 to become the largest IPO in history. Meanwhile, OpenAI and Anthropic are also planning to go public in the second half of this year. Collectively, these three companies are projected to raise over $240 billion—potentially marking a pivotal turning point for liquidity in the crypto market. Market analysts believe these mega-IPOs could significantly drain liquidity from risk assets, with the crypto market sitting in the same funding pool. As mainstream crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have closely tracked the Nasdaq and U.S. equity risk sentiment in recent years, a large-scale shift of capital toward subscribing to tech giants’ IPOs may weaken buying support for BTC, ETH, and altcoins.
According to CoinDesk, data disclosed by market-making firm Caladan shows that approximately 93% of GameFi projects are now effectively dead, with token values down 95% from their 2022 peaks. Funding for game studios has also plunged 93% by 2025. Investment in Web3 gaming has nearly dried up entirely, as capital flows have shifted toward AI, real-world assets (RWA), and Layer-2 infrastructure—triggering a collapse across the gaming industry. Even Animoca Brands, one of Web3’s most active investors, has scaled back its gaming investments to roughly 25% of its portfolio and begun pivoting toward areas such as stablecoins. Moreover, in 2022, 63% of Web3 venture capital funding flowed into gaming; by 2025, that share has fallen to single digits. Over 300 games have announced shutdowns, turning Web3 gaming into a cautionary tale about chasing speculation while neglecting product-market fit.
According to CoinDesk, citing the Financial Times, Revolut—the largest fintech company in Europe and a crypto-friendly platform—has informed investors that its target valuation range for its IPO is $150 billion to $200 billion, with the earliest possible listing date no earlier than 2028. Previously, in November 2025, the company completed a share sale at a valuation of $75 billion—representing over a 125% increase from that figure. Meanwhile, Revolut is reportedly preparing for a secondary share sale in the second half of 2026, with an expected valuation of approximately $100 billion. Financially, the company’s pre-tax profit for 2025 rose 57% year-on-year to £1.7 billion (approximately $2.3 billion). On the operational front, Revolut obtained a full UK banking license in March this year and has applied to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a U.S. banking license, accelerating its global market expansion. However, insiders indicate that a formal valuation target has not yet been finalized.